Thankful for my lab and for my community, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to do science and life with. Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a heads up: I just got a phishing attempt pretending to be from the #VisualSystemDevelopment #GRC. It looked pretty convincing at first glance, so be careful!

The lab made it to #SfN25!

Are you or do you know a current undergraduate student who wants to pursue research? Our Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) application is now open! (reposting from the MCW Grad school X account) Apply here: admissions.mcw.edu/register/sum...

Our latest paper is out! While the circadian photoentrainment circuit has been extensively studied, the mechanisms regulating its development remain poorly understood. Here we show that retinal Müller glia play a key role in this process. Check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fantastic new paper from @pierre-mattar.bsky.social lab!

Our department @ucdavisvetmed.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social is hiring! We welcome research that diversifies or complements existing strengths in gastrointestinal, neuroimmune, musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory systems and/or developmental biology. @socdevbio.bsky.social @ascbiology.bsky.social

Grateful to the Glaucoma Research Foundation (Glaucoma.org) for bringing the Catalyst for a Cure teams together to discuss strategies for neurodegenerative disorders: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A very important resource!

It's #FluorescenceFriday!

New preprints from the lab (3)! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I am reminded tonight how important it is for women to be inspired by other brave, pioneering women as I watch dozens and dozens of women post gift links to Jane Goodall obituaries and articles Keep it up, ladies.

#FluorescenceFriday: a weekly reminder that behind the data, there are moments of pure wonder. This is why we do what we do. And the #retina is so uniquely beautiful!

New preprints from the lab!! (2)

🎉 New preprints from the lab! (1) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@ucdavis.bsky.social had a great representation at the BAVRD!

Exciting news! Dr. Marie Burns has been appointed the new Director of the Center for Neuroscience, and it's hard to imagine a better choice for this position! @ucdaviscns.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social @ucd-cbha.bsky.social

Such beautiful work!

Our National Parks are treasures and we they need more than visitors, they need funding! Btw, #lassenvolcanicnationalpark is magical 💚

Snails with human-like eyes?! Published in @natcomms.nature.com, the @planaria1.bsky.social & @accorsi-alice.bsky.social Labs have established apple snails as a novel model for studying vision restoration. They have complex camera-type eyes & the ability to regrow them in 28 days: bit.ly/4mvaxkq

Congrats to @GGIPstudents and COVSL member Dr. Erin Hisey and her mentor @bcleonard on completing her exit seminar for her PhD! The future is super bright for her as she returns to complete her DVM @ucdavisvetmed.🍾🎉🎈#visionscience

Joseph is about to give a talk on his Hi-C data 🧃

Congratulations to all! I'm so proud to have not one but two @ucd-physiology.bsky.social colleagues on this list! @doctheagrif.bsky.social and @elisazhang.bsky.social are rockstars and this is very well deserved!!! 🎉🎉

Proud to be a signatory on this letter in support of the courageous staff at the NIH who penned the Bethesda Declaration to decry the ongoing politicization and damage to the US biomedical research infrastructure which has been the envy of the world.

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪 www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

Threats to federal-UC research partnerships will be devastating to the Californian economy and the USA leadership in worldwide innovation. It will have immediate impacts on many CA communities as UC is the 1/3 largest employer in CA.

🚨 Final Reminder! 🚨 Don't miss your chance to share your research at the ISER BrightFocus Glaucoma Meeting 2025! 📅 Abstract Submission Deadline: May 27, 2025 🔗 iserbrightfocusglaucoma.org/abstract-sub... @iser.bsky.social @brightfocus.bsky.social

This is why we do what we do. Watching exceptional trainees thrive is the best part of this job... Let’s make sure there’s a future for them.

We recently wrote a review about neuroimmune interactions in retinal repair. We dive into the literature regarding immune influences in Muller glia reprogramming, cell transplantation, and axon regeneration. Hopefully its useful, free link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1k-FL4pAsj...

In this strange times, attending #ARVO2025 has been a breath of fresh air. Inspired by the work, energized by the community and just so so grateful for the chance to spend time with friends and colleagues ❤

As always, @meyerlab.bsky.social gave a brilliant talk and as always, his images are just spectacular 🤩 #ARVO2025

The Retinal Development session at #ARVO2025 is just gorgeous. Adam Almeida gave a truly fantastic talk! 🤩

@ismaelhdeznunez.bsky.social just gave a brilliant talk at #ARVO2025

Celebrating a successful Utah Vision Science Symposium! A day of amazing science and people!

Truly grateful to all of the NIH staff who are working so hard and keeping everything going in these challenging times.

So you want to study the optic nerve head. You’re thinking a Pax2-Cre driver should work, right? Well, think again: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40300047/

Day 1 of the BDE Study Section is done. Loved the science, hated Microsoft Teams. That thing is a crime against efficiency 🙄

@accorsi-alice.bsky.social is the best! She truly has a vision for #VisionResearch. biology.ucdavis.edu/news/snail-r...

April 23th is #SantJordi! The day Catalans celebrate love and literature. And yes, we celebrate no matter where we are 🐉📚🌹 *in this dark times, we use any excuse to find a bit of joy

Consider a specific example such as merging the National Eye Institute into a larger brain institute. Are eyes part of the brain? Absolutely. Are there different concerns and difficult pools of grantees for eyes compared to other parts of the brain? Most definitely What are benefits and costs? 1/n

Very excited to share (most of) my PhD work, in which we use human retinal organoids to understand how thyroid hormone signaling is regulated in the developing retina to promote robust and accurate photoreceptor subtype specification. Turns out, it's a lot more complicated than we expected. 1/n

Some days the lab is really in sync! *I took the pic because they're twinning but I'm constantly amazed by our trainees! I guess we need to keep hoping for a fact-based future for them

If you are near the west coast and interested in #DevBio, please save the date for the West Coast SDB (WCSDB) @socdevbio.bsky.social meeting! It will be held at @calpolyslo.bsky.social in August!

Thank you, @doctheagrif.bsky.social, @rogerslabucd.bsky.social, and @elisazhang.bsky.social!! You made us so proud! #StandUpforScience

The end of an era... so many scientific fields have been shaped by Jon's contributions! I owe him a great deal and I know I'm not the only one

I don't know where this is all going but I American voters should NOT accept the USA lagging behind in global research and innovation #StandUpforScience

The Biology and Development of the Eye (BDE) Study Section just got postponed. I'm heartbroken and at loss for words...

Reminder that NIH grants are NOT reckless spending. They are extremely competitive. The mean success rate of all grants is <24%. Far lower for R01's that are the lifeblood of most academic labs. All the data can be found here: report.nih.gov/funding/nih-...

This is what NIH indirect costs are paying 👇